Sunset Reflection
by thelogicalpenny
Summary: Sora and Namine story written for my friend Sarah. Namine underestimates her self-worth and Sora tries to show her otherwise.


"Come on Pluto!" Sora shouted as he raced towards the door. Pluto barked and bounded after the boy into the courtyard. Sora took off dodging to dog as they scampered through the clean cut grass. Sora waved to Mickey as he and Pluto kept sprinting around the castle. Pluto tackled him near the pond and the two wrested on the ground till both flopped down from exhaustion. Sora laughed and glanced around to ensure Riku wouldn't pop up and attack him when he least expected it. Pluto hopped up and took off after a stray butterfly. Sora picked himself off the ground and started heading back towards the castle.

He looked around as he meandered up the path. Sora did a double take when he saw something move behind a tree. "Dang it!" Sora thought. Just when I thought we were rid of all the heartless. He whipped out his keyblade and started running over. As he neared the tree he slowed wondering why the shadow almost looked…blonde. He ran to the tree and ducked behind it. He looked around the edge and slumped against the trunk when he saw it was only Naminé working on her latest sketch. Sora grinned and quietly turned himself around and tapped Naminé on her left shoulder with the edge of his keyblade. She jumped startled at the touch of cold metal on her skin and craned herself around the tree while Sora darted the other way. He crouched down d and whispered "found you." Naminé whipped her head back around and started laughing when she saw Sora's big grin right in her face.

"You goof ball!" Naminé said as she pushed Sora back. "I should have known it was you, it always is," she bantered and gave him a small smile in return.

Sora plopped down across from her and just looked into her blue eyes as she settled back down to work on her sketch. "What are you drawing this time?"

"Nothing much."

"Come on tell me!"

"It's just a doodle, I'm no grand artist" she protested as Sora started scooting around to look.

"Stop lying to yourself!" Sora protested as he grabbed for the sketchpad.

"Sora! Give it back!" Naminé exclaimed as she felt the sketchpad slip out of her hand.

Sora gave her a grin and looked down at the notepad. He saw himself sitting on hill at sunset with his hand outlined as though he were holding something.

"It's … it's just a silly drawing," Naminé said blushing fervently as she snatched her sketchpad back from Sora. She wracked her brain for any excuse she could think of and spewed them out as they popped up. "I just wanted to work on drawing faces, I've been using Pluto, but dogs don't like to sit still, and the flowers just mock me and the Cheshire cat disappears whenever I look at him," she laughed nervously looking away "and my own face isn't very exciting, I mean who would want to see a picture of me, they would much rather see you or Riku or Mickey, I mean you guys have saved the world over and over and over.." she trailed off waiting for Sora to say something, anything.

"Naminé?" Sora asked quietly, reaching over and gently turning her face back towards his.

"Yes?"

"Come here," he said standing up and reaching his hand towards her. Naminé dipped her head and took his hand letting him help her up. She tried to let go but Sora just kept holding her hand and started walking along the path to the woods. Naminé clutched her sketchpad to her chest and gripped his hand, silently glad that he hadn't let go. She followed him as they wound their way through the trees.

"Sora?" she called quietly as they started getting deeper into the woods, deeper than she normally ventured.

"Yeah?" he replied, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see in a minute. We're almost there."

Sora pushed aside a branch and gestured for Naminé to go through. She ducked her head and entered the small clearing. The clearing wasn't even a hundred feet across and it had a small creek that drained into a pond on the other side of the glade. The grass was sprinkled with morning glories and cattails grew on the far side of the pond. Tulips loitered in the shade provided by the trees on the edge of the clearing.

"It's beautiful Sora," Naminé whispered as she tried to soak it all in. Immediately she tried to pull out her pencil to start drawing regretful only that she hadn't brought her watercolors along.

Sora shook his head, "You haven't even seen the best part yet." She cocked her head and let him tug her across the glade over to the pond.

He crouched down at the edge of the pond and she followed suit peering into the few feet of still clear water. "Look! Baby fish!" She exclaimed with glee watching them dart back and forth across the pond. Still Sora shook his head, "Look closer," he insisted. She knelt down and bent her head closer to the pond and her hair fell over her left shoulder and brushed the surface of the pond sending ripples rolling across the mirror of water.

"Sorry, the only thing I see is my reflection."

"Exactly."

Naminé bent back up and turned to look at Sora.

"You are the most beautiful thing here. Earlier you said your face wasn't very exciting, but I think you're wrong. Your face shows the tiniest emotions, you see everything around you and you love every bit of it and you shine like the sun shines on the surface of the pond. And when you shine you block out everything else in my sight."

Naminé could feel the heat rushing into her face, so she ducked her head letting her hair droop down to cover her face. Sora reached over and brushed her bangs back behind her ear. "I mean it Naminé," Sora insisted as he slowly put his finger under her shin and turned her face upwards to peer into his. "You're perfect," he whispered as he bent down and gently brushed his lips across hers. He let his forehead rest on hers.

Naminé could feel a tear start to roll down her face. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. "Sora," she choked out as her body started shake "thank you." She turned her face up and pressed her lips against his in return.

The two meandered back to the castle with their fingers intertwined. As twilight neared they stopped on a mound in the courtyard to watch the sun sink over castle.

Naminé stepped back from the wall to check that the frame was hanging straight. Sora's face peered back at her from behind the glass but she knew that he was really looking at girl whose head rested on his shoulder as they sat on a hillside. The black frame highlighted the shadows being cast by the sunset in her sketch. She knew she it wasn't her very best work but she didn't care. This one would always be her favorite.


End file.
